Summary
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealthis full to the brim with minigames. From dodging traffic and explosions as an action star in The Pursuit of Realism, to getting catfished by a chicken inMiss Match, there are endless opportunities for Ichiban to interact with Hawaii in both comedic and endearing ways. One ofInfinite Wealth’s most involved minigames, however, is situated on a nearby shore; as Ichi offers to help clean up the dilapidated resort of Dondoko Island, theAnimal Crossing-like minigame sees him fight off invading pirates, craft furniture, and restore the land to its former glory.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s Dondoko Island follows the primary conceit ofAnimal Crossing, particularlyNew Horizons, as it tasks Ichiban with raising the resort’s star level. While Ichi breaks down resources in trash piles around the island to complete DIY projects, Dondoko gradually becomes more homey through the inclusion of furniture and landscaping pieces. It’s a fantastic way for RGG Studio to consider asset reuse, providing impact from both a decorative and material standpoint, rewarding the player with money as achievements are met. An interesting note about the island’s decorations comes in the form of Dondoko’s theme, which oscillates based on what is placed in the environment.
How Classifying Item Types Could Incentivize the Next Animal Crossing’s Visiting Villagers
Dondoko Island’s Themes
Players will notice that as they begin to fill the island with new decor,Dondoko Island’s theme will change to reflect the items' majority. For example, placing items like hedges, picket fences, and the like can change Dondoko’s theme to “rustic,” which ties into the satisfaction of visiting tourists. Tourists will have their preferences in regard to theme/decor, which helps to complete their request list and, subsequently, earn Ichiban more money. In turn, this incentivizes players to think not only about how much they decorate, but what they decorate with.
The idea of visiting tourists bearsresemblance toAnimal Crossing: New Horizons' campground feature, which allowed for villagers to stay on a player’s island with the chance of being recruited to move-in full time. The campground’s first visitor was always a villager of the smug personality, though subsequent visits were either completely randomized, or worked to fill in a missing personality on the island. The frenetic nature of the campground made it so that results were just as random as hunting for villagers on remote islands, though Dondoko’s use of themes could inform the next iteration of thisAnimal Crossingfeature.
How the Next Animal Crossing Could Use Themes to its Benefit
Thoughthe nextAnimal Crossingwill likely be on different terrain than an island, a campground feature could return, and with it comes the prospect of incorporating themes into a villager’s likelihood of appearing. While personalities play a significant role in a villager’s actions and dialogue, many look to a villager’s appearance and aesthetics for who they favor the most. Instead of having visiting villagers be informed by personality alone, it would be interesting to see how classifying item types could incentivize certain characters to appear. For example, if a player decorates with a lot of darker items, then a villager like Muffy could be more likely to visit. Alternatively, terrain with a majority rustic theme could incentivize villagers like Fauna, or a pop-themed space ones like Fuchsia.
While players don’t necessarily needto decorate anAnimal Crossingmap with a themein mind, it could be rewarding to consider visiting villagers based on this approach. Given how rare a campground visitor was inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, such an implementation would still give players the opportunity to hunt for other preferred villagers as well, keeping the feature balanced while helping them fill out their roster with characters that correspond to their decor. Taking into account the items that players gravitate toward while applying this to visitors would make sense from a gameplay standpoint, as it could better explain why a villager wanted to visit the player’s space in the context of its aesthetics. Just as Dondoko Island has worked from the foundations set by its source material, it will be interesting to see if the nextAnimal Crossingtakes anything from it in return.
